


No Rest

by ginkyou



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Body Horror, Corpse Desecration, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Visions, Gen, Nightmares, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Reanimation, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, just an all around bad time for everybody involved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:55:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21887050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginkyou/pseuds/ginkyou
Summary: It had started with a sudden, inexplicable rush of dread. One second Rey had been focused on her robot opponent, deep in the midst of another routine training session. The next she had found herself curled up in a ball, shaking, tears in her eyes. Like an unexpected wave had swept over her with no warning, like she’d lost her footing in the sea and slipped under. There one second, gone the next.That night she’d had the dream.In which Rey learns that sometimes, what is dead should stay dead, no matter how much it might hurt.Spoilers for TROS.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Kudos: 3





	No Rest

**Author's Note:**

> Reader beware: there be spoilers in these waters!  
> Had to bang this one out in approximately two seconds right after seeing TROS because I'm just a big fan of looming gigantic machines with a faible for body horror and general horribleness. I know that in the movie, the machine that was keeping Palpatine alive was more of a "life support" type deal and less of a "let's reanimate a dead body" kind of thing but, like, they didn't say it WASN'T able to reanimate a dead body so, like, there.

> _Well, meet me mother and father, meet me down the river road  
>  And momma you know that I'll be there when I check in my load  
>  Ain't no grave can hold my body down  
>  There ain't no grave can hold my body down  
>  — Ain't No Grave_ (traditional; attributed to Claude Ely).

Rey couldn’t stay awake forever. She knew she couldn’t. But she had to try. The very idea of going to sleep, of having even the slightest chance of having that dream again made her very, very determined to try as hard as she possibly could.

It had started with a sudden, inexplicable rush of dread. She had been in the middle of a routine training session, keeping her skills as sharp as a knife even with the Order gone and her enemies dead. One second she had been focused on her robot opponent. The next she had found herself curled up in a ball, shaking, tears in her eyes. Like an unexpected wave had swept over her with no warning, like she’d lost her footing in the sea and slipped under. There one second, gone the next.

That night she’d had the dream.

She was back on Exegol. Back in the ancient stone halls of the Sith. The statues of Sith Lords past looming in the distance, dim lights casting dancing shadows on their faces that almost made her believe they were moving. She knew what was ahead - she’d already been here, after all, had already lived through these moments as well as the ones that were about to pass - and it filled her with absolute terror. But her feet wouldn’t stop moving. She couldn’t stop herself.

When she reached the throne hall, her blood froze. The scene was different - wrong. There was Palpatine, hanging lifeless from the apparatus that animated him. And there was another body. Lying prostrate on the floor. She felt her knees melt as she recognized who it was.

It was Ben.

The world blurred around Rey. When she took her first step, it felt like she was dragging her body through deep, black mud. Like unseen fingers had tightened themselves around her ankles, trying to drag her down, into the darkness. It took her an eternity to reach Ben. Millenia. Palpatine’s hideous body cackled somewhere in the distance, somewhere beyond the veil of Rey’s grief.

Ben’s hand was cold when she touched it. Of course it was. He looked like a corpse - no, she had to remind herself, he was a corpse, he was dead, he died, she knew this already, but not like this. Not like this. She watched her fingers reach out and touch his lips, his cheeks, his hair. She heard the most horrible scream echo through the hall, reverberating over and over again, underscored by Palpatine’s laughter and the restless chanting of his Sith audience. It took her several moments to realize that it was her who was screaming.

Something shifted against Rey’s stomach. It’s Ben’s hand. It moved - there, again! She saw it! It was moving! Ben was moving! Ben was -

And then Ben’s whole body moved again, this time more violently, jerking away from Rey, and when Rey looked up she yowled like a hit cat. The machine, the rotten machine that had kept Palpatine alive, had dropped Palpatine's corpse and was now instead tugging at Ben. Rey screamed and grabbed Ben’s shoulders, barely able to see through the anguish and fear and pain. They both yanked at Ben’s body for a few moments, Rey desperately trying to keep a hold on Ben, the machine’s metal muscles whirring and creaking and screeching as it yanked and shook and pulled.

The machine was stronger than her. It dragged her along with Ben and finally shook her off and Rey screamed as Ben’s body was lifted up, up into the inky black air and she did not stop screaming as the machine dug its claws deeper into Ben and as its metal fingers stuck needles into his veins and wires into his heart and she did not stop screaming even after she woke up, even as Finn and Poe and all the others had gathered around her and held her and consoled her sobbing, quaking form. She had not been able to - hadn’t been able to stop. Because in that final, dagger-sharp moment of her dream, Ben’s chest had lurched suddenly and his hands had balled into fists and with a horror beyond words Rey had watched as his eyes had opened, full of terror.

Three days had passed since then. In a way, part of her still had not stopped screaming.


End file.
